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"Miriling" wrote in message
...
The latest news out of Fitchburg, Mass., is that the managing editor of
the
local newspaper, Sentinel & Enterprise, has ordered the stopping of the
long-standing weekly chess column. Jeff McMenemy, the editor, wrote to the
chess columnist, Martin Laine, the following: "As the editor, it was my
decision that they [the weekly chess columns] did not interest a broad
enough
segment of our readers to continue devoting as much space as we had to
them."
This is an outrage!
The chess column, which was started in 1969 by yours truly (who continued
until
October 2002), was eventually taken over by Martin Laine, a USCF-rated "B"
player and an accomplished journalist.
The decision by the paper came as a big surprise to him, since the paper
gave
him no warning of what it was planning to do. This is the same newspaper
whose
chess column won awards from the Chess Journalists of America in the
1970s,
'80s, '90s and early 2000 as having the best chess column and also best
chess
column of local interest in the country. It also won CJA awards for having
the
best chess tournament reports for a newspaper.
Newsgroup loyalists can help out the cause by e-mailing their protest to
the
managing editor - - and/or the
publisher,
Asa Cole -
Letters to the editor can be sent to
The newspaper's Website has archived chess columns dating from September
2001.
The columns from the 1990s and earlier are only available on microfilm.
This is the same newspaper, which started in 1838, that reported on
Pillsbury's
win in Hastings in 1895. That, too, is available on microfilm at the
Fitchburg
Public Library.
Once again, help is needed from the newsgroupies. E-mail your protests to
the
managing editor and the publisher. If you wish, call the paper toll-free
at
1-866-896-4979. Or write letters to the editor and send to Sentinel &
Enterprise, PO Box 730, Fitchburg, MA 01420. Demand that the chess column
be
reinstated. The chess columnist, Martin Laine, would very much appreciate
your
support.
This same thing happened at The Boston Globe, when the paper dumped the
column
written by Harold Dondis several years ago. After e-mails, letters to the
editor and phone calls of protest, the paper reconsidered its decision and
reinstated the column, now co-written by Dondis and GM Patrick Wolff. It
now
appears twice a week in the Globe.

George Mirijanian

P.S. The newspaper's Website is sentinelandenterprise.com
Click on columnists to get the chess column.
In the 35 years of its existence, the chess column has published more than
3,000 games, most of them annotated, for its readers. The main focus of
the
column, however, is reporting on local chess news, especially news of the
local chess club, scholastic chess tournaments, regiojnal tournaments,
etc.

The latest news out of Fitchburg, Mass., is that the managing editor of the
local newspaper, Sentinel & Enterprise, has ordered the stopping of the
long-standing weekly chess column. Jeff McMenemy, the editor, wrote to the
chess columnist, Martin Laine, the following: "As the editor, it was my
decision that they [the weekly chess columns] did not interest a broad enough
segment of our readers to continue devoting as much space as we had to them."
This is an outrage!
The chess column, which was started in 1969 by yours truly (who continued
until
October 2002), was eventually taken over by Martin Laine, a USCF-rated "B"
player and an accomplished journalist.
The decision by the paper came as a big surprise to him, since the paper gave
him no warning of what it was planning to do. This is the same newspaper
whose
chess column won awards from the Chess Journalists of America in the 1970s,
'80s, '90s and early 2000 as having the best chess column and also best chess
column of local interest in the country. It also won CJA awards for having
the
best chess tournament reports for a newspaper.
Newsgroup loyalists can help out the cause by e-mailing their protest to the
managing editor - - and/or the
publisher,
Asa Cole -
Letters to the editor can be sent to
The newspaper's Website has archived chess columns dating from September
2001.
Once again, help is needed from the newsgroupies. E-mail your protests to the
managing editor and the publisher. If you wish, call the paper toll-free at
1-866-896-4979. Or write letters to the editor and send to Sentinel &
Enterprise, PO Box 730, Fitchburg, MA 01420. Demand that the chess column be
reinstated. The chess columnist, Martin Laine, would very much appreciate
your
support.
This same thing happened at The Boston Globe, when the paper dumped the
column
written by Harold Dondis several years ago. After e-mails, letters to the
editor and phone calls of protest, the paper reconsidered its decision and
reinstated the column, now co-written by Dondis and GM Patrick Wolff. It now
appears twice a week in the Globe.

George Mirijanian

P.S. The newspaper's Website is sentinelandenterprise.com
Click on columnists to get the chess column.